Shadows of the Day
by Liz08
Summary: About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Alexander was not like the rest of the Volturi. Second, part of him thirsted for my blood. And third, my family, The Cullens and Blacks, were going to kill me when they found out I was in love with him
1. Chapter 1

Alright, believe it or not, this story idea came from something random that me and my college buddies on Halloween. We went on the campus Zombie walk and started talking about Twilight the whole time, of course, and told the zombies that the humans were in front of us and that they didn't want to eat us because vampires and werewolves didn't taste good to them; we really freaked them out and it was brilliant!!! So, ever since then we have been walking around campus acting like the Twilight characters we made up that night. True story. Serious. You just can't make stuff this stupid up. But I hope you like the fic!!!

**Preface**

**32 Years After ****Breaking Dawn**

I had always been alone. All of my family had always had someone that they called "their own," but not me. I can't even count the times that one of the members of my large family had told me that I would find someone if I just gave it time. But I didn't want to give it time when I had to sit back and watch my twin be with the wolf that had imprinted on her back before either of us could remember.

Being without a love was not the only reason I was alone. I really didn't know where I belonged. I was part vampire, but the human part of me made me trip. Who had ever heard of a _clumsy_ _vampire_? My skin was darker like my shape-shifting Quileute side of the family, but if I had a wolf lurking under that skin, it didn't make itself known to me. Not human. Not vampire. Not werewolf.

Just… alone.

**Chapter 1 **

**Moving Again**

I looked up for the last time at our home of the last five years in Astoria, Oregon as I leaned against Edward's silver Volvo holding my sketch pad in my arms. I had really liked it here. I had been able to make friends here, something every 20-year-old needs. I hadn't just been cast off as one of the "beauty and prefect, but strange" members of the weird Cullen family.

"Aislynn?" My mother called me out of my thoughts and I was sudden surrounded again by everyone else's thoughts. Sometimes I really hated having _Grandpa_ Edward's talent of mind reading. _'She's got _that_ look again…_' My mother, Renesmee Black, thought. "Come on, dear, we're ready to go." That always threw me, maybe it was the undying teenager in me, but it killed me that Mom still called me 'dear' even when we looked the exact same age as her, which was hit-or-miss between 16, 17, and 18. In fact, me and Mom looked a lot alike, more so than my own twin – Ellie – did, I had her bronze hair that she had gotten from her father, the same slim figure, and high cheek bones, but my eyes and skin are what made me look different from her. Jacob – my father – had managed to get some of his genes to stand out in me with my tan skin. It wasn't really _tan_, but it wasn't pale like the vampires of the family either. Last, but not least, were my eyes: bright and piercing emerald green.

I shook my head, sending my shorter hair, it hang around my shoulders in uneven layers, tumbling into my face. "I'm riding with Edward and Bella."

'_If it's because of Ellie and Seth-' _ She started in her mind as she glanced over at her other daughter and her "unofficial son-in-law" coming out of the house chatting away about going back up to La Push for the summer and running with Sam's pack for a while. Ellie had inherited Dad's phasing along with a few of his other characteristics: she had his black hair and it fell straight as a pin around her slightly rounded face, but her eyes were vivid hazel that bordered on being the same bright amber that all the vampires' eyes were after a good hunt. She was shorter than me by at least a good six inches, if not seven.

"It's not, Mom. I just want to be able to think with fewer thoughts in my mind." Only Edward would know I was lying. Although Ellie had gotten Bella's shield ability around her mind so that I couldn't hear her thoughts, Seth was still crystal clear and I didn't want to hear him. I didn't have a problem with my "brother-in-law" – they weren't married yet, but that was only a matter of time – but his "imprint thoughts" as I had started calling the way all the werewolves thought of their imprinted ones, made me want to throw up sometimes they were so sweet. I would be the first to admit I was jealous of what Ellie and Seth had, but that didn't mean I wanted to have to deal with it on our drive to Kentucky.

'_Alright, but ask them-' _She started this time, but Edward was the one that saved me the trouble.

"Of course, Az, can ride with us, you should know that, Nessie." Edward said with a smile to his daughter as he came out of the house with the rest of the family.

'_THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!'_ I happily thought. I swear, some days around here when it came to this family, Edward, Carlisle, and, every-now-again, Bella were the only ones that understood me at all.

"See, Mom? Nothing to worry about." I said smiling brightly.

"Alright," Carlisle said now that we were all together. He looked over his now very large family: 9 full vampires, 1 half vampire, 2 werewolves, and 2 mutts. 'Mutt' was what Ellie and I called ourselves, since half werewolf, a quarter vampire, and a quarter human is a mouth full. Besides, if the mess that we were wasn't a mutt, I didn't know what was. "We have a long way to go before we get to the new house in Berea, so we better get on the road." Carlisle and Esme headed to the black Mercedes at the head of our five car line up. Alice basically skipped to her yellow Porsche with Jasper walking at her side. Emmett and Rose walked hand-in-hand toward her red BMW, with Ady on their heels.

Ady, the newest member of the family of the Cullen family, was the only one that was totally happy being alone… or should I say 'a loner' since she didn't want to be tied down to one man for all time. She had come into our family in the way that Bella might have if Edward hadn't been as strong as he was; she had been Jasper's singer. We had just been lucky that he had found her walking in an alley one night when Alice had dragged him out to shop or we would have had to move from here three years ago rather than now. By some miracle, Alice had been able to get her mate to come to his senses before killing Ady, but she had been too far gone and had turned into a vampire. We were all very supportive of Jasper, but he still felt guilty over the whole ordeal, even though Ady loved being a vampire and had taken to being a vegetarian pretty easily after the first two years. Though Ady thought of Alice and Jasper as her new parents, she acted like a female version of Emmett in a five foot seven inch deep red head's body.

Mom, Dad, Ellie, and Seth climbed into Emmett's Jeep Wrangler. It always amazed me how many cars we all had, you never really saw them all until we moved since we had more cars, not to mention four motorcycles, than we did people. Most of our cars and things had been driven over to the new house last week. I hadn't seen it yet, and I didn't want to, I had stayed here and said my last good-byes to my friends, made a million promises to write from my "college," since they, of course, didn't know that I would be repeating high school again, and had cried more than I wanted to, but clearly not enough since I still felt like crying as I looked up at the house again. I could see my empty room from here…

"Aislynn…" It was Bella this time.

"I know." I said with a sigh before she continued her sentence. "I just… this was the closest I'd ever felt to being normal… You can understand that, can't you, Bella?"

She looked at me with the same amber eyes as the rest of my vampire family had, though I had been told they were once the same chocolate brown as my mother's. "I know you don't want any advice or words of wisdom, so I'm not going to bother with any." She hugged me and kissed my cheek.

For some odd reason, that actually helped. Her understanding that little bit did help. "Thanks." I said hugging her back and tear or two escaping from my eyes. The word 'Grandma' came to my mind, but I had never called my grandparents 'grandma' and 'grandpa,' just…Edward and Bella.

Edward looked at us from driver's side of the car. _'I hate to say it, but… time to go, Az.'_

I nodded and wiped my stray tears away and got in the car. I placed my sketch pad beside me, it would be the way I would remember this place, in the drawings and printings I had done of it over the last five years. Every time we moved that's what everything came down too; a few filled canvases and sketch pads, a hand full of people I had grown attached too, and that over whelming feeling that I was all alone even in my family.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: New Beginnings**

"Az," Edward said calling me out of my nap in the backseat of the Volvo. "We're here."

'_**Oh, goodie. I can **_**hardly**_** wait.'**_ I thought as I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. It was early evening as we headed down a dirt driveway that was still smooth and easy to drive down, night was just sitting in full.

Edward shot me the slightest of glares in the rearview mirror. _**'Can you at least try to cut back on the sarcasm?'**_

'_**No promises.'**_ I replied as I stared out the window. That was an unspoken rule that he and I had since we had to deal with each others' thoughts- we tried not to cause the other pain because of what we were thinking. Our driveways were usually tree-lined or had a forest between the main road and the house, but this one just had a field… a lot of field in fact, since I couldn't even see the house from here.

'_**Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?'**_ Ady's voice ripped into my mind. She never had respect for mine and Edward's gift.

'_**Just ignore her.'**_ Edward said trying to keep my thoughts of trying to rip Ady limb from limb and chuckle while I watched her piece herself back together, but that plan wouldn't work. I didn't have as much strength as the full vampires did, but I was stronger than a human. The only thing that I shared with my vampire family as a whole was speed. I was just slower than Edward, but somehow faster than Alice. That was something that none of us understood.

"There's the house." Bella said nodding up ahead. God only knew if she knew what was going on between the two of us, since neither of us could read her mind freely.

I looked up at what would be my new home. It was beautiful, but they were all beautiful. This one was three stories high, white with rustic red shutters, had a porch that looked like it wrapped around the whole house, and of course, large windows. It seemed to rise up out of nowhere among the surrounding fields that were apparently on small hills, and behind the house, stretched a dense forest. As we pulled up to the house, I could hear a river that seemed to be really close, and I could see a barn that was half hidden by the house. We were probably using the barn as a garage.

"So… What do you think, Aislynn?" Bella asked as we got out of the car. I looked up at the house as I held my sketch pad.

'_**Should I tell her the truth?'**_ I had to stop myself from turning and smirking at Edward.

'_**No.'**_ He replied flatly, clearly not seeing my humor.

"It's alright." I replied with the slightest of smiles.

"You'll be used to it in no time." She said, but cast Edward a glance that all but said that she knew that we had said something to each other.

I looked around at the others as they piled out of the other cars: Mom, Dad, Ellie, and Seth were stretching, Carlisle and Esme were already walking toward the house at a human pace, I just caught the last glimpse of Alice and Jasper as they disappeared into the house and lights started coming on a second later, and Emmett and Ady were laughing at something that I had missed as Rosalie rolled her eyes, in which case I should probably be thankful I had missed it.

"Aislynn," Esme was by my side before I had turned to look at her again. I smiled at her: it was impossible to be mean to Esme. "I hope you don't mind, dear, but we set up a few of your things already."

"It's alright, I understand, and I trust you and Alice." I said smiling. She was walking on egg shells with me and it honestly made me feel bad that she was so concerned about what I thought.

"Oh, it wasn't Alice and I…" Esme cast a glance over at my parents, both of whom had anxious thoughts about what I would think, but they were carefully avoiding direct thoughts. Great. They were _all_ acting like I was about to have a meltdown, just what I wanted as a house warming gift.

"Oh…" That was all I could manage to say. It wasn't helping at all that Edward was trying to analyze how I was analyzing everyone's thoughts. He stopped suddenly after I thought it was annoying. I kept smiling, but Esme glanced from Edward to Mom to Carlisle, and then back to me. Just lovely, now I had to think of something to say! "I'm sure it's fine. What floor am I on?" I didn't have to ask, I could smell my things out if no one dragged me to my new room first, but I figured it was best to keep the conversation going.

"The top." Dad called from where he and Mom stood between where we stood and the front door.

"Third." I said to myself as I took a step toward the house.

"No, the top." He repeated. The confusion in my green eyes must have been amusing or something because he smiled brightly at me. "You'll see, Azzie."

"Sure, sure." I said in a casual way. I heard Bella chuckle softly behind me. She always did that when I acted like my father for reasons that Edward had attempted to explain to me and I had just thought it was stupid.

'_**Hurry up and find your room!'**_ Alice ordered from inside the house. They were all getting anxious again.

"What's going on?" I asked looking around at all of them, but they weren't giving a thing a way in their thoughts. My curiosity had finally got the better of me and I headed into the house. It was now all bright since Alice and Jasper had apparently turned every light on in the whole place. The white furniture that we had had in the last place was now replaced with all new things. There were hardly any differences other than the style. The floors were wooden: a rich, deep mahogany that shined like it had just been polished. All the downstairs rooms seemed to break off from this large foyer; they must have had a wall or two torn down to create the "open" feeling that all of our houses had. The staircase, rather grand looking and in the same mahogany as the floors with a thick red carpet on the steps, sat at the far end of the foyer. The only other carpet that I saw was to the right: a large area rug that had a complex, yet pleasing to the eye, pattern in red and gold was in the living room. I caught a small glimpse of the kitchen as I headed for the stairs that were about in the middle of the first room; it looked large and had white tile rather than the hardwood floors and the cabinets looked like they were made out of cherry.

Once I was up the staircase, I headed down the hallway; the floor once again was hardwood. The doors that lined the hall on both sides were also made out of mahogany. I was starting to see Esme new theme in wood… At the end of the hallway on the left side was a set of double doors; that had to be Carlisle's and Esme's room. I took the right end since it had more doors and I could see an iron-looking spiral staircase at the end of the hall. The doors here were open and I could tell whose room belonged to whom. The first one was Ady's on the right side of the hall: the walls were white with black and white pictures hanging on them (some of nature scenes and one that I had painted) and black leather furniture. For all of Ady's childish behavior her room was very grown-up in style. Next, further down the hall and to the left was Emmett and Rose's room, not that they would be using it much… but anyways, it was simple; pale blue walls and white furniture, no bed. The last room near the end and back on the right side was Mom's and Dad's room: this was the first room on this floor was the only one that actually needed a bed, the color scheme was brown and deep green that gave it a woodsy feel, and several of my paintings that had different places around La Push and Forks completed the theme. It was clear where Mom and Dad felt most at home.

I headed up the spiral staircase at the end of the hall, but was a little confused when it kept going after the third floor. 'The top,' is what Dad had told me, so rather than go see what everyone else's rooms looked like I kept going up the stairs. I could hear the rest of the family moving around down on the first floor and a few, namely Alice, Jasper, Ellie, and Seth, were slowly coming up the steps. They were trying to give me enough to get up to my room before they headed to their rooms on the third floor. Apparently, Edward's and Bella's room, Alice's and Jasper's room, Seth's room, Ellie's room, and Carlisle's office/library were the only rooms on the third floor.

I stopped dead when I reached the top of the stairs. There was no door to my room, once I got to the top of the stairs… I was just there. It was about the size of the others' rooms, but only because the ceiling was slanted. The far wall was just glass and in the middle were two double doors that opened on to what looked like a small balcony that was just big enough for my easel and a stool. A bookshelf that spanned the length of the left wall was full of books. Some my old ones and others new: at a glance I spotted a couple of new medical books (clearly from Carlisle), a few paperbacks in the corner of one shelf that looked like romance novels that I'd never touch (from Ady and Rose probably, but it was the thought that counted!), several hardback fantasy novels (most likely a combination of Alice and Bella). My bed was in the right corner near the glass wall, it was already made up with my purple and brown striped comforter. In the other corner near the glass was my slanted art desk… that had a new set of paints, pastels, and pencils sitting on it. Also a good sized group of canvases were leaned against it. The other walls were solid white and a single sheet of paper was taped on one on the right. I walked over to it, not really sure what to expect after all of this.

Aislynn,

Remember to let your gift flow. Enjoy.

Esme

Were the only words on the page in my great grandmother's graceful curving letters. By this point I was about ready to cry. They had all gone through so much trouble to make sure that this unfamiliar place felt like home to me. It made my heart ache and I wanted to let the tears that were building up in my eyes to fall, but I didn't. Only Edward would know that they were tears of joy, and Mom and Dad were on their way up here right now to see if I liked my room and I just couldn't let them see me crying. I stared up at the ceiling at the point where the two slanted sides met at the top to try and hold the tears in. I turned and faced the staircase once I had myself under control to wait on Mom and Dad to arrive. This was my worst mistake seeing as that was when I spotted my music stand with a good sized pile of blank sheet music on it and violin case on the floor next to it. On the top of the top sheet I could make out another note, but this time it was in Edward's calligraphy:

Az,

I replaced your strings. Music is always a good out let for emotion.

Edward

That did it for me. The tears came back just as Mom and Dad made it to the top stairs. _**'Oh, God! She hates it! What did we do wrong?'**_ Mom worried as her face feel and a pained look entered her wide brown eyes that showed her emotions perfectly. _**'Ummm… maybe we should get Jasper up here…?'**_ Dad thought and that made me laugh a little bit, but it sounded more like a sob because I was so choked up. Mom rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me like when I was still little and had just tripped and cut my knee wide open.

"Whatever you don't like we can change it, Aislynn…" She said softly.

"It's not that… I just… I can't believe that you all… everyone went to so much trouble over me." I said as I tried to calm down again. I was just being stupid getting worked up about all of these.

"Well…we were all worried about you, dear." Mom started to explain. "And Jake came up with this idea and of course once Alice got a hold of it, it sorta mutated…"

Dad was rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he looked down at us. "You do like it… right?"

I nodded and managed to break out of Mom's iron grip to go hug him.

"Thanks, Dad."

It always made me feel special or more loved when Dad just thought of me… which usually didn't happen without Ellie getting equal in return. I still wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to call Berea, Kentucky my home, but I knew that this house would be my home because of all of my family members.

'_**Whew. At least she's not crying anymore.'**_

"Dad…"


	3. Chapter 3

If by some chance that someone is reading this that actually lives in Berea, KY and goes to Madison Southern High School, I've never been there, so I don't know how things work and I'm sorry if I get things wrong. Ok, in other news, I have started my spring semester of college and now have very little time to write, so chapters will be few and far between, but I will keep writing, so just please be patient with me please.

**Chapter 3 – Sunny Day Woes**

We had all been going to school for about three weeks at Madison Southern High School when the inevitable happened. A sunny day. Normally, this would have been a fun day, but it was the first sunny day in a new city; which meant I would be going to school alone. The rumors about "The Cullen family," I put it like this because it was always whispered by the students for reasons that I never really understood, but they all did it, but that was often not enough to make our stories believable. There always seemed to be a kid that thought that we were just a little too inhumanly beautiful or a little too weird to be human, so since I seemed to be the most approachable of all of us, aka looked and acted the most human (aka tripping), I went to school alone on the first sunny day to make sure that everyone saw that "we" could go out in sunlight and "we" were able to function without each other.

So far, it was believed that Edward, Mom, and me were triplets and had been with "Dr. and Mrs. Cullen" the longest (since we were nine). While we were some of the youngest "Dr. and Mrs. Cullen" had also adopted two older boys that were attending college back at Washington State (Dad and Seth since they didn't looked too old for high school). "Dr. and Mrs. Cullen" had also opened their hearts to the Hale twins (clearly Rosalie and Jasper), a set of siblings (Emmett, Ellie, and Alice), and finally they had not planned on taking in anymore, but "Mrs. Cullen" had just fallen in love with Bella and Ady, who was adopted at the same time as Emmett, Ellie, and Alice. "One big, happy, prefect, non-vampire family!"

It always amazed me at how stupid humans could be.

I dressed for this bright sunny day in dark colors to keep with the theme of torment. Alice had thought several mean things about my choice of all the new clothes that she had bought me this go around. Although, I didn't see anything wrong with my jeans, white t-shirt, black tank top over it, and my bronze hair held back in a simple black ribbon. I had even put on jewelry; some gray and black key earrings that didn't match, but that was how I had bought them, and, of course, my family crest (then again, I hardly took it off, it actually looked a lot like Alice's chocker, but my ribbon was gray and white) and the bracelet that dad had given me for my first birthday (a carved wolf that dangled from a silver chain, like the one Bella wore, only without the diamond heart, Ellie had one that matched mine). Or maybe it was the fact that I had actually bothered to put make-up on, but that was only eyeliner. Yeah, I was dressed like an emo kid, but I thought it fitting for today.

Carlisle drove me to school since I was posing as a sophomore and wouldn't technically be able to drive alone for another six months. Thank God that we were using Edward's birthday as our cover birthday or he, Mom, and I would have to wait longer to drive alone again. It was a silent ride until Carlisle pulled into the school. "Aislynn, if you do not wish to go to day, you don't have to." I had been wondering when he was finally going to say it, he had been thinking about it the whole way here.

"No, it's alright. Besides, it's Friday. The day will be over before I know it." I said smiling at him. I was very thankful that we were alone in the car; if Edward had been there he probably would have told Carlisle about my lie as soon as they pulled off. Mom had offered to come with me, but even if the other kids didn't know it, it was still embarrassing to have your mom could with you to school just because you didn't have any friends. Ellie could have come with me, but she and Seth were going running and I didn't want to ask her to come since she already had plans for the day. Besides, she would have complained endlessly in her mind and I would have a terrible day just by having to listen to it.

"Are you certain?" Carlisle asked just to be sure.

"Yes. Please don't worry so much about me. I'm fine." That would have sounded odd that I had replied 'I'm fine' rather than 'I'll be fine,' but I knew that Carlisle was more worried about my long term happiness and not my current state because of having to go to school alone. Carlisle nodded, but we both knew that he would still worry about me. I grabbed my messenger bag and climbed out of the car. "Bye, Dad, hope you all have fun." I smirked at him before I closed the door and headed toward the building.

'_**That was not funny Aislynn Black.'**_ He thought very clearly. I only called my great-grandfather 'Dad' on days like this one when it was best for the humans to hear me actually call him that. I laughed inwardly as I pushed open the door to the school and entered the morning rush of all the normal students. After a quick stop by my locker, I headed for my first period, English II, a class that I usually had with Edward, Mom, Bella, and Ellie. So right off the bat I would be getting at least a million questions.

Sure enough, I had barely been in my seat for a minute before the girl that sat in front of me asked, "Ummm, Aislynn, where's Edward today? Is he sick?" It was bad enough that she was uncertain about what my name was, but her thoughts made me want to roll my eyes, but I knew that I couldn't. _**'Oh, God, I was finally going to tell him hi this morning! And now, he's not here! What if I never get up the courage to talk to him again? What if I go for the next three years and he never even knows I exist?!' **_

"Carlisle and Esme are taking everyone hiking down at Brushy Fork's. We generally do family things when it's sunny…" I replied almost scared to hear her unspoken reaction.

"Oh, really? Why didn't you go?" _**'She'd probably fall down the mountain, but then again the way Edward's so protective of her, he'd probably save her live or something, she's so lucky to have a brother that's so sweet and not to mention drop dead gorgeous! But then again he's her brother; she can't possibly see how hot he is…' **_My reputation of being the only clumsy Cullen had spread like wild fire because it was the only thing that could find wrong with us.

"I didn't feel like going, plus I have a test in fifth period." A total lie, but it wasn't like this dumb girl would know. One down, 999,999 leave to go today. Just brilliant.

"Hey, umm, Cullen!" A boy that looked to be a senior and a jock at that, flagged me down after second period as at least six others stood around him waiting for the same answer. "Where's Ady?"

God, Ady done had all these boys eating out of her hand. It was disgusting at all the thoughts that were coming from them. It, of course, was not unexpected since they were teenage boys, but honestly, couldn't they think of anything other than sex? On second thought, I had had enough experience with reading boys of this age group's minds to know that not they were totally incapable of such a feat.

"Hiking." I replied bluntly. I turned and headed to my next class as they all nodded to each other and started talking about "what a turn it was that Ady was an outdoorsy girl and how that was probably half of how she kept that body of hers in shape."

By the time lunch had rolled around the whole damn school knew that "The Cullen Family" had gone hiking and how cool it was that "Dr. and Mrs. Cullen" let them skip for something as cool as that. It was tiresome to listen to all their thoughts on the matter, but at least my work was done. I munched on an apple as I sat at our usual table all alone and stared blankly at the ceiling, trying to block at least some of them out.

"You're Aislynn, right?" I looked up and my green eyes were met with a pair of rather ordinary blue ones, I'm sure you've seen the type: that 'down home' blue that were soft and maybe a little bit gray that you see everywhere that they have blue eyed people, but the boy that they belonged to looked nice enough and he was not alone; a little group of about four, two other boys and a girl. I recognized one of the boys and the girl from my fifth period class and the other boys from my second and sixth periods.

"Yes."

"Mind if we sit here?" The girl… I think her name was Amanda or something like that, it was a common name.

Despite being told that it was rude to read people's mind, I did a quick check of what they were thinking and to my surprise they were curious about me. Just me and not the rest of my family. It made my heart ache for my friends back in Oregon. "No, not at all. It's not like I need a full table today." They all sat on the side opposite of me and it made me think of an interrogation, but tried to be open minded.

"I'm Tom by the way, we have –" Blue eyes started.

"Pre-Cal." I answered just to prove that I did know who he was. I smiled easily.

He smiled back brightly just happy that I had known him. "This Amanda, Patrick, and Fred." He pointed out each of his companion in turn, they smiled along with him. I was just waiting to get the flood of questions over with since they all had something that they wanted to ask. I had already decided that I wasn't going to try and fit in here, I didn't want to be attached to this place like I had been in Oregon, it would just make it hard to leave again when we had to, so they could ask whatever they wanted, and I would answer, but everything would go back to its normal working order on Monday when the rain returned and so did my family.

"So, I've got to ask, why Berea?" Amanda asked. "Why on Earth would anyone want to move to _this_ town?" She wasn't afraid to ask, unlike the boys. I had to admire her fearlessness a little.

"Esme's doing." I answered easily. I knew our story backwards and forward and could tell it to anyone in my sleep easily and without missing anything. "She loves small towns and was getting tired of the city in Seattle. Carlisle got a good job offer at St. Joseph's and here we are."

"Do you miss the city?" Fred asked now.

I shrugged. "Not really. We usually were only _in the city_ during the week actually. Carlisle is big on family bond since most of us have had it so hard growing up, so we've been going camping and hiking for as long as we've been with them."

"One big happy family." Patrick commented as if it was all too good to be true.

I laughed dryly. "Yeah, right." I said letting the sarcasm drip feely from my words.

"Knew it." Amanda almost sung happily as if she was just dying to know, but she didn't seem to want to tell the whole school oddly enough. "My bet is on twin fighting."

"I'll take the triplets then." Tom threw in.

I grinned. "Actually, we siblings get along the best for some reason. Now, Ellie and Emmett, Alice and I, Edward and Jasper, Rose and Ady, all have some pretty impressive fights. Not to mention Carlisle yelling to stop us mid battle." Close, but still it was still a white lie since it was usually just bickering.

"No kidding?" Patrick said a little shocked. "Me and my brothers and sisters are always at each other's throats…"

"We're used to depending on our biological siblings, or at least I am, so I tend to fight with my other siblings."

They went on in this manner of asking questions and me answering them for the rest of lunch. I had even gotten a few questions of my own in. Afterwards, Amanda, Tom and I headed to fifth period, and actually ended up sitting next to each other. After class, Tom pulled me aside once we were out of the classroom.

"Aislynn, I'm having a party tomorrow night at nine. You're welcome to come. You can bring some of your siblings if you'll feel more comfortable."

"Thanks, but I'm not so sure…."

"Just think about it, alright?" He said as he backed away from me smiling, his blue eyes brighter then they had been. _**'A party never killed anyone. Besides, at least one of those kids needs to get to know some people. At least Aislynn is willing to talk to us unlike some of us.'**_ He thought specifically of Rosalie and it made me want to laugh. I wondered what he would think if he knew that I was actually the only single member of my family. Most of them were already acting like couples, but since I was alone anyways and Dad and Seth couldn't go to school, Mom and Ellie looked single as well.

**-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-**

Carlisle gave me a curious look when I climbed into his car that afternoon and was smiling brightly. "Good day?" He asked skeptically.

"Yeah, actually. I talked to some kids today. They were nice." I said as a summary.

"I'm glad, Aislynn."Ah, finally! He was starting to worry about me less, which in turn would make Esme worry about me less! Perfect.

When we arrived back at the house I was greeted by more skeptical looks at my smile, but after my short explanation and Edward's nod that I wasn't lying the few family members that were actually in the front part of the house, Bella, Alice, and Esme, they went back to whatever they had been doing.

'_**Just as a warning, in case you haven't heard yet, Emmett and Rose are at it.'**_ Edward told as he went and sat down next to Bella and then I couldn't hear his thoughts anymore as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"EWWW!" I said loudly as I started to get the thoughts of my other family members, I appeared next to the couch were Bella was seated as my grandparents chuckled at my reaction. "It's not funny!" I snapped just thankful to be under Bella's shield. I honestly didn't know how the hell Edward had survived without Bella being a vampire and using her power to protect his mind from hearing the gross sex thoughts of his siblings. "What do you have the range sit at?" I asked so I could know how far I could wonder from Bella and still be safe.

"From here to the kitchen." She answered smiling.

"Thank God. I'm starving!" I sped off to the kitchen to find me some food. I had the appetite of a werewolf when it came to human food, but thankfully, it wasn't like that with blood. Ellie and I had found that we enjoyed the taste of both blood and food, but we still preferred blood, but it just wasn't worth hunting every day, so the kitchen was kept stocked not only for Dad and Seth, but also for us. Between the four of us we could eat enough food for all of the vampires and half vampire that didn't eat. After rooting around and finally finding some cookies and went back to the living room and plopped down on a chair to wait Rose and Emmett out. Knowing the two of them, I would end up doing all of my homework before I was able to be after from Bella again.


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry it has taken me so long to update, but I'm getting down to my finals right now and its slowly killing me with all the work, but summer is right around the corner and I should have more time to write rather soon. Thank you for your patients with me.

**Chapter 4 – Halloween Buzz**

I ended up passing on Tom's offer to come to the party, but the following Monday at school at least half of the sophomore's minds were buzzing with how awesome it had been. Tom had even gone so far as in pre-cal to tell me that he had hoped that I would come, the disappointed look on his face and sound in his voice clearly to make me feel guilty. This was easily excused by saying that Alice had dragged me to Lexington to shopping to make up for me not going hiking with everyone. That had stopped his little plan to make me feel guilty in its tracks. I honestly did feel sorry for lying to him, Alice and I had actually gone hunting, but I could hardly tell him that! I had made my choice not to fit in and I was sticking by that. It was going to be hard at the moment, but in the end when we had to move again this would save me a lot of pain.

Days turned into weeks, weeks in… well, you know how times works, so no need to bore you with the details. Anyways, it was now the middle of October. With the leaves changes into their vivid autumn colors, I had gotten some good sketches and a one excellent painting from the tiny balcony thing that my room opened up to. I had actually almost finished with my walls as well, which had pleased Esme very much. A blank of stars including the positions of the spring constellations was now over my bed. A soft twilight or dawn, I really hadn't decided which it was yet, met the stars around the middle of that side of the ceiling. Music notes floated both free and on staffs in the corner where my violin lived. Random book characters and fairy tale things slipping out of the pages of a large book filled the wall space near my bookcase. I had one last section that I just couldn't figure out what to do with across from my bed and on the ceiling just above there. It was hopeless anytime I stood before it with a mind to fill the blankness. I always ended up just chewing on the end of my paintbrush that didn't have the bristles until I gave up for the day.

As the last week of October arrived the school, like almost every other high school in the United States, the minds of the students and the halls were a buzz about the different Halloween parties that everyone was throwing.

"Ady." Edward said firmly, but to soft for the humans around us to hear.

"Stop it." I hissed at her. It was really unnecessary for her screw with the jocks' minds… from _across_ the cafeteria! It was bad enough with most of the boys in the upper classes looking at her and Rose all the time, but her encouraging it just to see how far Edward and I would let her go was just childish. A moment later the thoughts of everyone but mine and his were gone. He sighed and kissed Bella on the cheek, but it annoyed me. "Thanks, but no thanks." I said with a slight smile.

"Are you sure?" She asked looking at me concerned.

"Yes. I can deal with it. I always have." I replied evenly. _**'I don't need your protection.'**_

'_**She's only trying to help, Az.' **_

'_**I know. I don't want it.' **_Sure I was being stubborn, but I didn't want to be treated like a child.

'_**Everyone needs help some – '**_

I cut him short. _**'Don't give that. I know, but I can deal with it. I've dealt with it for years. You of all of them should know that.' **_

Bella, along with the rest of the family, was now staring at us as we glared at each other. After a few long seconds, everyone's thoughts came back into my head and Edward's disappeared. I dropped my eyes and stared at my empty tray, since I had actually eaten my food.

'_**Oooooh!'**_ Ady thought sneaking glancing at the three of us.

'_**Did they just fight?!'**_ Emmett's excited thought.

'_**Well, that's once in a blue moon…'**_ Rosalie was ready to just drop it at least, probably because it didn't involve her or Emmett.

'_**Oh… no…' **_Of course Alice was concerned about her favorite brother fighting with his granddaughter. Jasper sent out calming waves of emotion toward to calm her nerves a little.

'_**Well, if she doesn't want to talk to Dad, she's not going to talk to me…'**_ Mom always did have her moments of purely understanding me.

Lunch went on uneventfully after that, but just before Pre-Cal started Tom tapped me on the shoulder inside the classroom. Mom took her seat, but was watching me with hope in her brown eyes. She wanted me to adjust and make friends here so that I would stop being so down. I wasn't about to do that. I would in time "stop being so down," but for the moment I wanted to work through things for myself. I was just thankful that Bella and Edward had biology right now. I'm sure that were trying to work through the irony of that at the moment. Maybe or maybe they had done that on the first day of school.

"Hey, Aislynn, can… can I talk to you?" He asked.

"Sure, but better hurry, class will start soon." I followed him back into the hall as it started to clear out with everyone headed to class.

"Ummm… I know you didn't come to the last one, but," _**Why I am even doing this?! She probably thinks I'm insane or something! **_"I'm having a party on Saturday for Halloween. Guess its luck that it's on a weekend this year. You can bring your siblings… just like last time." _**Ah, damn it all! **_When I didn't say anything he pressed on. "Then again, you might not want to bring them after the fight you had with Edward at lunch…"

I had known he was watching me, but I didn't think that he had picked up on that. I forced a laugh that trilled like my normal one. "Oh, did it look like we were fighting? It was a staring contest. He won. He always wins." Now that had been a lie I didn't have to tell. Was I protecting him or me or the image that people had of us… I honestly didn't know, but it made me think about what that crazy girl in English had been thinking on that sunny day a while back: _**'Edward's so protective of her, he'd probably save her life or something, she's so lucky to have a brother that's so sweet.'**_ So maybe I was protecting that image of us as being brother and sister. "So… a Halloween party?"

**-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-**

"OMG, Aislynn! You take forever to eat!" Ady said with a sigh as she leaned against a tree looking down at me as drained a deer… my second of the night.

"Leave her alone, you know that me and Azzie eat more than everyone else." Ellie defended as she stood and wiped her mouth. It was only the three of us hunting in the forest tonight. Most of the family didn't need to feed, and wouldn't need to feed for another couple of weeks, but me and El for some reason required more on our vegetarian vampire diet, even if we did eat human food, which we also ate a lot of that as well. We had to drink animal blood at least once a week, sometimes twice, and eat enough human food that would fill a werewolf.

I growled softly to let her know that I was annoyed at her, since I had my mouth full.

"You didn't have to come you know." Ellie said, still backing me up. "You probably could have lasted until next week."

'_**Great! Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb are ganging up on me!'**_ Ady thought with a mental sigh.

I growled louder as I stood up, done with my meal. "Ady, I know you don't try all the time, but please attempt to remember _I can hear_ you."

"What'd she say?"

"My thoughts are my own!" Ady said growling herself. She glared at me. _**'Even Edward doesn't tell anyone's thoughts!'**_ She lowered herself into a fighting position.

"And neither will I!" I snapped at her. She had no right to through that in my face. She had no idea what all I had to deal with! I glared at her, dropping into a lower position in case she lost her temper; she wasn't thinking about attacking me, she just wanted to scare me. After a few minutes of the three of us standing still, I stood up again. "Listen, we both need to stop being childish. I'm sorry. I over reacted."

"Yeah. Whatever." Ady said standing up again as well. "You Mutts ready to head back?"

Ellie and I nodded. Both of us turned and started walking in the direction of the house. "Oh, hey, I got invited to this party… and the guy told me I could bring my siblings if I wanted…" I guess I was sorta trying to make amends for the little fight that Ady and I had just had. I figured she would like that information.

Ady scoffed right back to being herself. "Who would invite you, Little Miss Anti-Social, to a party?" She meant it in a joking way, at least in her mind, but it came out without humor.

"A boy in my pre-cal class."

"Great. A nerd party." She sighed. "Besides, it's not like Carlisle is going to let me out. I'm still on house arrest in this town for another month." _**'Which I don't see why, it's not like I'm going to eat anyone!'**_ That was Carlisle's rule with Ady, she had to stay out of the 'dating ring' for the first four months that we were in a new place.

"I know, but I thought it might be of interest to you." I said. Ellie was giving me a weird look by now. I had not really been thinking about this much, but at the moment… I honestly just wanted to do something _unexpected_ for once in my life. I wanted to break the invisible chains that my parents, and the whole family for that matter, had placed on me. I wanted to do something they would never see coming.

"What are you getting at, Azzie?" El finally voiced.

"What would you say to sneaking out and going to this party…?" I asked carefully. We were still out of Edward's range so it was safe for me to think freely at the moment.

"I'd say: who are you and what have you done with my twin?" Ellie said with all seriousness.

"Right on! Finally starting to let yourself have some fun, Aislynn?" Ady grinned mischievously.

"Well, here's what I was thinking…" I mapped out the whole thing to them. Carlisle and Esme were on candy duty this year with Alice and Jasper, Alice because she liked looking at the children's costumes and Jasper because he loved her that much. We always got hit hard for candy on Halloween because kids always thought that rich family gave the most candy… and in our case it was true. So, the four of them would go out shopping and making an appearance around town to act like a "normal family" on Saturday. Mom and Dad would be going for a run that night, plus it was falling perfect because it would be right around the time for Edward, Bella, Emmett, and Rosalie to go hunting. All of their eyes were headed toward black and they would wait until the weekend to hunt. Since Ady had came with us she wouldn't need to hunt then, so she could just jump out of the window when Alice wasn't paying attention, also since this had to do with me and El, Alice wouldn't see it before hand. Ellie and I could say that were going hunting on our own to have some sisterly bonding since we didn't get that much at the moment.

"Sounds like you've thought of everything…" Ady said. She was somewhere between being impressed with me and questioning my reasons for wanting to do this.

"Why do all of this sneaking around? You know that Mom and Dad would let you go if you asked to go." Ellie asked out right.

"Now that… it's hard to explain… I hate to say it, but I'm not sure you would understand, El."

"Oh, so there is an alternative motive…" Ady almost groaned.

"Not to do with you guys. This… this is me. I sorta want to just try something different." How could they understand how suffocated I felt? Would they – could they – understand how I felt about wanting to get out from under the confines of the security blanket that our family placed me in? That if I didn't do something soon I was going to lose my mind? I hadn't even told Edward about any of this, the one person in this family that might understand me. I had been so careful not to think about it when he could see my thoughts.

"Whatever." Ady said rolling her eyes. "At the very least this doesn't sound that bad. Plus, you'll take the blame if I get caught?"

"Naturally."

El bit her lower lip. "Well, if you want to do this, I guess I'm in too. Besides, someone needs to come along to make sure you don't kill Ady."

**-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:- **

Ellie and I ran through the woods behind our house all smiles just after nightfall on the 31st of October. It was actually hard to believe that this was working. Ady would probably be there a in a couple of minutes, as soon as the first trick-or-treaters arrived. It was killing me not to burst into full speed and get to the tree that we had hide the bag with our costumes in it earlier in the week, but I kept pace with El since she was doing this just because I wanted her to.

"How long do you think we'll have before they start looking for us?" El asked as she started digging through the bag to get her cat costume out.

"Well, Edward is going to be the main worry, but with the thoughts he was thinking when he and Bella headed out, we may not get caught at all since they went out of range…"

"Ew… How do you deal with that?" She asked making a face.

"Well, if I can deal with Ady, I can deal with Edward, he's not nearly as bad. Hell, Emmett even has a cleaner mind, all be it, not much of one, but still. "

"You better believe it!" Ady said with a wicked smirk as she arrived. "The little candy bandits are starting to show up." She took the bag from Ellie as she went behind a tree to change. Ady's costume was… well, slutty would be putting it mildly. It was a French Maid outfit that hardly covered more than a one piece bathing suit. She smirked again and went off to change as well.

I reached in and took out my black dress that Alice had gotten for my first graduation. It had purple and white polka dots, came just above my knees, and was strapless. It was more cute than actual dressy. Of course it still fit perfectly; I hadn't changed sizes since I was thirteen. Since I already had a pair of black flats on, I just pulled the last item out of our bag – purple witch's hat that had a fake spider dangling from the point to complete my costume.

"Well? How do I look?" Ady asked fishing for a compliment that she wouldn't get from El and I.

"I have a feeling that a nun is crossing herself somewhere because of that get up." Ellie said in all seriousness.

"Why, thank you!" She said beaming. _**'Wait until the boys get a load of this!'**_

I cringed at that thought. "Trust me, they don't need any encouragement." With a sigh and perhaps a second thought on my part, I headed off into the woods and lead them to long way around the house. With any luck no one would notice that Ady was gone and El and I were taking too long just to be hunting.

We stopped running when we hit the actually town. We stuck to the less populated streets until we got close to Tom's house. It was easy enough to find, the scent of alcohol and teenage hormones mingled in the air along with loud music that was some kind of rock; too much base for me to really enjoy it, but good for normal teens that just wanted to have a good time dancing. _**'This doesn't seem that bad. Not bad at all!'**_ Ady thought in approval as we entered the house. It was a little hard to move around with so many kids packed into the small living room. Although after a few moments, it was like the Red Sea parting as people started to realize just who had arrived.

'_**Oh yes! The Cullens came to the same Halloween party as I did! Now if I can only get one of them to talk to me, I'll never be socially awkward again!'**_

'_**HOT DAMN! ADY CULLEN!!!'**_

'_**Fuck yeah! I can almost see her whispering eye!'**_

'_**Is Edward here?!'**_

'_**Emmett, Jasper, Edward, hell, I don't care as long as one of the boys came!'**_

'_**Oh, whoopee-freaking-do! The Cullens came. There goes the neighborhood.'**_

'_**Wooooooooooooooo! Hey… why did everyone… stop… dancing? Oh… They're so b-e-autifuuuuul!!! I need another drink…'**_

Ah, the teenage mind; such a simple thing.


	5. Chapter 5

Ok! Nice long chapter since I haven't written in a while. I think this will be a really fun chapter! I enjoyed writing, but then again I usually do since I'm doing this mainly for mine and my friends' amusement. I hope you enjoy too. If you do, let me know! If not, well, just keep it to yourself! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

**Chapter 5 – Decision **

As Ady mingled with the crowd of upper classmen that were there, apparently Tom's cousin was the captain of the football team and was co-hosting the party, El and I stood around and talked a little bit to a few people from our classes. Mostly we just exchanged bored looks. I was sure that Ellie would have really enjoyed this if Seth had been in on little plan, but we – well, I - couldn't risk it since if him and Dad were both in wolf form we'd be busted in a heartbeat. Tom had been ecstatic when he had spotted the two of us standing there, but at least he had chosen to stay away because of my "completely bored look." He had been concerned that his party sucked, but he had quickly reassured himself that parties must not be my thing.

"Azzie, how much longer are we going to stay here, you're miserable." El asked after two hours of standing around and talking to whoever dared to talk to us.

"I don't know…" I said absentmindedly.

"Have you proven the point that you were trying to make yet?" She asked next. "I just can't figure out if you're doing this for yourself or to show the family."

So, El did understand more than I gave her credit for. I had been unsure if she could really understand and not being able to read her mind made it almost impossible to tell, but she did. I guess I should have known that my twin would understand this… though I doubted if she would be able to understand the next bold move that I made. I was jolted out of my thoughts as new thoughts that were not my own entered my mind.

"Oh, hell." I mumbled. "We have to get Ady. If we don't get out of here in the next minute or less, Edward, Emmett, and Jasper are going to make a scene dragging us out." I headed over to where Ady had singled out one of the starting fullbacks on the football team and had lured him off from the rest of his pack. I swear she was worst than a lion sometimes. I grabbed her arm and pulled her down a few inches so I could whisper-yell in her ear. "We have to get out of here now."

"Not now, Aislynn. I'm busy." She didn't even take her eyes or mind off the high school boy still in front of her.

"Get your damn mind out of the empty bedroom upstairs and listen to what I'm saying or do you want Jasper to come in here and give you that disappointed look that you hate so much?" Emmett may be Ady's 'best friend' in the family, but there were only four people that she really respected: Carlisle and Esme, as the rest of us did, and Alice and Jasper; her 'parents' in this new life.

"I'll see you around school." She said smiling devilishly at the boy as she backed up. She turned around as we started walking toward the door. "You're still taking the fall right?" She whispered to me a little panicked. _**'I can't upset them again…'**_ She thought to herself, and then looked down at me as we met up with El in the front room. I nodded putting her mind at ease for the time being.

"C'mon, I can already smell them." El whispered as she fell in step with us. We made a b- line toward the door at a _humanly_ fast walk. We were almost there when our path was blocked.

"Aislynn, you're leaving so soon?" Tom asked stepping into our path.

This was one of those times where I wished my telepathy was two-way with everyone because I would have told Ellie and Ady to go on without me. It would have saved them a lot of trouble. "Yes, we have to get back to the house before…" I stopped lamely when Edward, Emmett, and Jasper came through the door looking like they would have liked to rip it off the hinges rather than open it properly. "Damn it…"

Tom's human instincts took over for him. "Umm… I'll… see you at school…" He said before bolting away from the angry vampires.

'_**Aislynn Elizabeth Black, I… you… it's a miracle that I was able to keep your father from coming down here and dragging you and Ellie back himself.'**_ Edward shouted into my mind. It wasn't so much the yelling that made it clear to me that he was angry with me, but the fact that he had used my whole name that really made it sink in how mad he was. "Come on, we're taking the three of you home. You're just lucky that Carlisle hasn't realized that you've been gone yet." He said aloud in a firm tone.

'_**You just had to wait until you were four feet from me to yell that, didn't you?'**_ I snapped. I generally never snapped at Edward, than again it was a rare occasion when I snapped at anyone other than Ady. "We were just leaving." I replied tensely. I didn't have to hear everyone's thoughts to know that all the high school students in the room were staring at this little scene. I tried to block out their thoughts and focus on those of my family members.

'_**Ady… what are we going to do with you?'**_ Jasper wondered to himself.

"Let's go." Emmett said voicing his thoughts.

Heads hung, we followed them out the door and to the curve where Emmett's Jeep and Edward's Volvo were parked. Ady followed Jasper and Emmett to the Jeep, while Ellie and I trailed after Edward to his car. We both climbed into the backseat of the car, neither of us brave enough to face our pissed grandfather in the front seat. It didn't surprise me that he didn't speak to either of us on the drive back to the house; he even kept his fore thoughts on the road so that I wouldn't hear what he was really thinking about.

When we arrived back at the house, Carlisle, Esme, Mom, Dad, Bella, and Alice were assembled in the large foyer that the front door opened into. Seth and Rose were standing on the stairs, thinking about what had happen and would happen to us. It was clear just by where those two were standing that the "parents" were handling this matter. Emmett went over to the stairs to stand with Rosalie as Jasper and Edward also went to stand besides their mates, leaving me and my fellow convicts alone before the jury of our family. Bella looked up at Edward and a moment later his thoughts about everyone else's thoughts were gone. He shook his head, he wanted to hear what was going on, she nodded and his thoughts returned. The air was thick with disappointment, almost to the point that it was suffocating me.

Carlisle took an unneeded deep breath before he stepped up to start our trail. "I understand that none of you enjoy be treated as children, but," I didn't hear the rest of what he said because I was too focused on his thoughts. _**'I would expect this kind of behavior from Ady, but I never would have thought that she could get Ellie and Aislynn to go along with something like this.'**_

"It wasn't Ady's fault. It wasn't even her idea." I nearly yelled over Carlisle's calm words. Well, that certainly changed the focus of this from Ady to me in a heartbeat.

Alice and Jasper exchanged a look and sighed in relief. _**'It wasn't Ady.'**_

'_**Guess she was telling the truth on the ride back…'**_

'_**Does that mean it wasn't El's fault either?'**_ Seth wondered.

'_**Oh, Aislynn…'**_ Mom's worried thought.

'_**She's got to be kidding. Azzie wouldn't ever do something like this…'**_ Dad rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

Edward was careful to keep his mind off of what he thought of this.

'_**Is she doing this to protect Ady?'**_ Surprisingly, Esme was the furthest from the truth. The truth was I _wanted_ them to know I had done this. That it had all been me.

"It's the truth. I planned it, timed it perfectly. Hell, you can even blame Alice not being able to see it coming because of me." I said firmly.

"Grandpa…" Mom stepped forward and took Carlisle's hand to ask him if she and Dad could speak with me alone.

"Yes, of course, Nessie." He turned and faced the rest of the family. "This now seems to be a close family matter, so everyone…" He and Esme lead most of the family out of the room and upstairs, El stayed by my side, though Seth looked like a lost puppy as he followed the vampires. Though, it was like they wouldn't be able to hear the whole things from up there. Edward and Bella paused at the top of stairs and watched.

"Ellie, go to your room." Mom ordered. El listened, but cast a glance back at me that I didn't exactly understand; it held something between worry and wonder. I almost felt like laughing when I realized that she must be trying to tell me that only I could pull this off.

Dad started to pace, Mom sighed. There was a long silence, they both thought about what they were suppose to do in a case like this (_**'we've never had to do anything like this before…'**_), before Dad started. "Azzie… why?"

"Yes," Mom followed up, an angry tone now. "We would expect something like this from Ady, maybe even Ellie if she had truly wanted too, but _you_? Never."

"Why? Because it seemed like the only way to get your attention! I know you worry about me, but you don't understand anything that's going on inside of me! You know that you should worry, but not why you worry. It's like I'm being smothered by something, everyone can see that I can't breathe, but no one knows why." I yelled. Tears were welling up in my eyes, but I didn't let them fall.

"If you feel this way, why didn't you say anything?!" Mom snapped at me.

"Maybe because I didn't think anyone in _this_ house would understand!" I snapped right back. Dad was looking a little awkward as we had our yelling match. He scathed the back of his neck and watched us, _**'I never realized…'**_ Of course he hadn't. Edward hadn't he could read my mind!

"What do you mean by that?! We're your family!"

"Yeah? Well, you're also the ones watching me suffocate, remember?!" That said… screamed… I ran off to my room, more than thankful for being fast as a vampire. I flopped down on my bed. How could she possibly understand? She had always had Dad. It had taken him what: two minutes after she was born to imprint on her! It was the same thing with El and Seth. It had been at least 30 years since any of the vampires had been alone, over a 100 for Carlisle and Esme.

'_**Jake, I don't know what to do… She's never acted like this before…'**_

'_**What are we going to do…?'**_

'_**That was quite a match.'**_

'_**Poor Azzie…'**_

'_**Why didn't she say that was how she felt?'**_

'_**Hope this means I'm out of trouble… Bet I won't even hear about this again! Everyone is going to be worrying over her now! Oh, shit! She's probably listening to all this! AC/DC to the resuce!**_ _**I've got big balls/ I've got big balls/ They're such big balls/ And they're dirty big balls/ And he's got big balls/ And she's got big balls But we've got the biggest balls of them all/ And my balls are always bouncing/ And my ballroom always full'**_

I couldn't take it anymore! I hadn't been thinking when I had yelled all of that at Mom, but now everyone was thinking about it! I groped around on my nightstand for my ipod without turning to actually look. When I had finally grasped it, I put my headphones in and started flipping through my long list of playlists until I found what I was looking for. What was cleverly named 'Emo Playlist' had a large assortment of songs that I played when I was feeling down or like no one understood me… you know, emo stuff. It took a few song skips, but I found what I was looking for; it was an old song from an equally old movie called "The Nightmare Before Christmas" this specific song was "Jack's Lament". I closed my eyes as the ghostly music started, quickly getting lost in the melody. Most of the first verse was rather pointless to my current situation, but after a bit the words I wanted to heard crept into my ears: "Oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones/ An emptiness began to grow/ There's something out there, far from my home/ A longing that I've never known." I whispered the words a long with the song. Ahhhh… that was better the thoughts in my mind were less than static in the back of my brain now. This was probably why I didn't hear Edward entering my room.

"Does this really call for a lament?"

I just about jumped out of my skin. I knew that Mom would ask him to come and talk to me, but I didn't think it would be this soon. I sat up after my fright and cut my ipod off, taking my earbuds out as well.

"Oh, there's an empty place in my bones/ That calls out for something unknown/ The love and praise comes year after year/ Does nothing for these empty tears." I replied without much effort. I only had to change one word in the song to make it fit my purpose.

Edward came over and sat down next to me. _**'Az, I know how that can feel, and I'm not going to tell you that you'll find someone or something to fill that emptiness. You might never find it. Some people are defined by someone else, like me and Bella are. I firmly believe that neither of us are capable of surviving without the other. But other people are defined by themselves they don't need anything else or anyone to make them whole. Perhaps you should stop trying to find something that will complete you and try and see if you are already complete?'**_

"Edward…"_**'How can I put this so that he won't freak out on me… I've been thinking about something for a while; carefully of course. It's not what you are going to think right off, but…' **_I took a deep breath; I had to say this out loud to make it more real than just a thought. "I want to go to Volterra."

"WHAT?!" Yep… He was freaking out. And why shouldn't he? The only reason he had ever wanted to go to Volterra was to ask the city's vampire keepers to kill him. The only reason anyone in this family even joked about running off to see the Volturi was to kill themselves. He stood up rather quickly and took me by the shoulders, so that he was now towering over me. I could tell by the way his bright amber eyes staring a bit panicked into my eyes that he was trying to read my deeper thoughts, not that he could. All he could possibly be getting was that I was completely serious about this. "Are you suicidal?! Az, why would you want to go there?!"

That was all it took to get several other sets of amber and brown eyes looking at me. Mom, Dad, Bella, and Esme were up in my room a few minutes later and I could hear Carlisle, Alice, and Jasper at the foot of my stairs. "Hi guys." I said casually, as if Edward leaning over me like he was going to try shaking me soon was nothing at all. "You know, since so many of you are already up here, Carlisle should probably join in this as well." He appeared by Esme's side a moment later.

'_**Dad, what is she thinking? What happened?!'**_ Mom asked Edward loud and clear.

"You want to explain to them and to ask Carlisle's permission, this is your chance." Edward said ignoring his daughter's questions. He let go of my shoulders and went and stood next to Bella.

"I want to go to Volterra." I repeated and kept going before anyone could do more than yell in their thoughts. "Not to kill myself, but I study. I want to go to dig through their library mostly. I want to be around something different for a change; to be around vampires."

"Are we not vampires?" Carlisle asked. "Edward said you wanted my permission, but shouldn't you be asking your parents?"

'_**Absolutely: why **_**isn't**_** she asking our permission?!'**_ Mom thought loudly again.

'_**Seems to be her new thing… Not asking us stuff.'**_ Dad seemed rather tolerant…

"Because, I'm technically an adult leaving in your house, so I should be asking for your permission." I paused. How could I explain this…?

"It's not that she doesn't think we are vampires, she just wants to see a different way of life. She had observed the shape-shifters and humans, now she wants to see the other part of her genealogy." Edward saved me from finding a different way of putting my thoughts by just paraphrasing them. Perhaps he was starting to understand now that he knew what I wanted. Then again, hadn't he done the same thing? Went out on his own for a few years and eaten humans. Maybe he just thought this was my version of that.

Carlisle cast a glance over at Mom and Dad, but Mom only nodded, giving him the go ahead to pass judgment on me alone. (_**'It's not like she'll listen to us…'**_) He cleared his throat though unneeded as it was he thought was more ready to do this afterwards. "How long do you plan on being gone?"

"I don't know… a year at most I guess?"

"How do you plan on getting food?" He was going through a few questions to make sure I had actually given this some thought and wasn't just running headfirst into something.

"I'll hunt in the woods outside of the city or I'll buy human food. If I have to run a little bit further it won't be a problem."

"How do you plan on dealing with Aro? You know that he is already fascinated with Nessie, not too much mention his interest in long range telepaths."

"Be polite, but refuse any offers to join the guard. Simple enough."

He was starting to think that I might be a good idea to send me "aboard for a while" where the words he was using in his mind. "Of course, you would have to stay is close touch with your parents, and a few other things, such as-"

Carlisle was cut short by Edward's low growl. "It would be like sending a lamb into a lion's den!"

"You can't really be thinking about letting her go?" I was a little shocked to hear Dad speak up as well.

"Don't talk to me about lambs in lions' dens. I've heard too many bedtime stories about a stupid lamb and a sick, masochistic lion to be afraid of something as small as a lion's den. Or are you going to tell me that your past is just a fairy tale now?" I growled right back at Edward. Look at the good that had come from a stupid lamb willingly following a lion into his den. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that. Nearly half the people in this house wouldn't be here!

"Aislynn…?" Mom came forward and wrapped me up in a hug. She had actually understood what I was getting at with all of that. _**'Is this really what you want? Is this what you think you need to do?'**_

"Yes."

She nodded and kissed me on the cheek. _**'Ok.'**_ She let go of me and turned to face the others. _**'If this is what it takes, than I think I can deal with it.'**_ "Grandpa, she has my permission to go. If that helps with you decides at all."

"Ness." Dad said looking are her as if she had just stabbed him in the heart.

She went back over to him and took his hand, making sure that he heard her. _**'Jake, it's alright.'**_

"Aislynn," Carlisle was all business now, "You have my blessing to go to Volterra, with the condition that you call to check in with your parents at least every other day, hunt regularly (_**'Not that I believe this will be a problem with your appetite.'**_), and I will be the one to escort you to Volterra."

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M GROUNDED FOR ANOTHER MONTH?!" A few hours later as I was blissfully just messing around on my violin, happy little melodies drifted throw the air as they came to my mind, when Ady's piecing words ripped throw the quiet of the house. "I'M NOT EVEN THE ONE THAT DID ANYTHING! IT WAS ALL AISLYNN! YOU HEARD HER! HOW THE HELL IS IT FAIR THAT SHE GETTING TO F***ING ABOARD AND I GET STUCK ON HOUSE ARREST FOR AN EXTRA F***ING MONTH?!" There was a short pause, probably Carlisle telling her to calm down or something. "NO I WILL NOT!" A few seconds later I heard a door splinting. "DAMN IT!!!"

I guess I should feel sorry, but… well, I did do my best to try and keep her from getting into trouble for this… nah, I didn't feel a bit guilty as I day dreamed about getting out of here.


End file.
